Provide incentives: Sir Peter

PIONEER tourism promoter Sir Peter Barter says the tourism industry will take at least two or three years to fully recover from the impact of the Covid-19 and the Government should provide incentives for the industry.
Sir Peter, who is managing director of Melanesian Tourist Services, said that during the Tourism Industry Forum in Port Moresby yesterday.
He said tourism operators and owners would have to come up with incentives to keep their business going. He said his Madang Resort Hotel had already cut down rates by 50 per cent for the next 12 months.
“The Government has just now began to abolish the duty free import on tourist vessels and this is going to affect us very badly because you are talking about another K5 to K6 million which we hadn’t accounted for,” Sir Peter said.
“In Australia and other countries, the tourism industry is very important and those countries have the ability to provide incentives, job seeker programmes to help pay for staff wasges.
“In PNG, it is going to be very difficult because the Government is short of money.
“What the Government can do is provide incentives to enable tour operators to be able to survive, because many won’t survive, tourism has dropped almost 100 per cent, there are no tourists coming into the country at all.
“The Government has to seriously consider that, as a means to be able to help the industry, the best way to do that is by way of incentives that are exemption from duty to bring in materials that are required to maintain a standard, getting foreign exchange is almost impossible, which makes things very difficult for the industry to be able to come out of this road and be able to compete with other destinations.”
Sir Peter said PNG’s small tourism industry had been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic with many operators who brought in tourists, closing down.
“Tour operators do not have all the assets, but they have the marketing ability.
“We have got no backing, so we not only have to start looking at the survival of tour operators but developing new tour operators and start selling PNG.
“That it is a very big challenge,” Sir Peter said.
He said it would take time to reestablish the industry.
“I don’t see any improvement at all until 2023 and 2024.”